If BTS showed us anything beyond raw talent during their recent virtual concerts, it's that, for now, these online events have the power to connect people at a global scale not seen prior to the pandemic.
By last month, their worldwide tour that was postponed until further notice due to COVID-19 would have been finished. I had been planning to visit several stops across the world with friends I'd met and bonded with through being an ARMY. Our entire year was structured around the tour, which took a lot of planning and saving for us to make happen, so our COVID-regulation-safe gathering was a small re-creation of what could have been.
To offset the fact that there wasn't a huge crowd of fans at the physical venue, the BTS crew experimented with XR, a sort of virtual mixed-reality environment that made everything look surreal.
At the start of the concert, a large gate appeared that opened to reveal the dancers and BTS, similar to the music video for the song "On." Offline, we would have never been able to see BTS do that — essentially re-creating their older music videos on stage — as XR made it possible for a specific part of the stage to be made to look like whatever they wanted. For example, when performing "Dope," they used XR to make it appear as if the singers were on an elevator going up and stopping at different levels.
BTS have had tour after tour for the past few years, and with there not being a traditional one this year, not only did it make fans emotional, it also was clear that the band was heartbroken with not being able to connect with their fans in person.
Jimin cried and told fans that all he wanted to do was perform happily with the members and have fun and share that happiness with fans.
"This is what I wanted to do for so long so I really don't know why I had to go through all this," he said, "but during the encore as I heard your voices, ARMY, I got emotional."
